The wildly unpredictable regular season is over. It’s tournament time for the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning Thursday in Greensboro.

Preseason favorite N.C. State must win four games to claim the title. A team from Florida that isn’t the defending tournament champ surprised nearly everyone by winning the regular-season championship outright. Duke is looking much better in the three games since Ryan Kelly’s return.

But not much of that will matter once the games tip off. The memories of this ACC campaign will be shaped largely by the 440 minutes of basketball about to unfold at the Greensboro Coliseum.

With that in mind, here are three things to watch during the ACC tournament:

1. Miami won’t cut down the nets.

Sure, the Hurricanes won the regular-season title, humbled Duke and swept North Carolina.

But Miami also limped to the finish, losing three of its final five games to nearly fritter away its outright claim on first place. Two of those losses were to Wake Forest and Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jacket defeat coming at home.

Once the Hurricanes became the clear-cut favorite in the ACC, their veteran-heavy group seemed weighed down by the expectations.

Imagine the target on Miami’s back as the No. 1 seed in a tournament where three home-state teams — Duke, UNC and N.C. State — all feel like they can contend for the championship.

2. Nothing will come easy for anyone.

It’s natural when filling out a tournament bracket to try to figure out the easy picks and make them first. Good luck doing so with this ACC tournament.

Miami’s first opponent will be Georgia Tech, who it already lost to, or Boston College, which it barely beat on the road.

Duke will open with Maryland, who it dropped a road game against, or Wake Forest, which pushed it to the limit in Winston-Salem.

UNC will likely begin its run against defending tournament champ Florida State, as the Tar Heels will have the tall task of going 3-0 against the Seminoles this year. FSU has dealt deflating losses to Virginia and N.C. State within the last week.

3. Semifinal Saturday could be special.

Saturday is often the most compelling day of the ACC tournament and could be again this year.

If N.C. State can beat Virginia Tech and Virginia, it would set up a rematch with Miami after nearly knocking off the Hurricanes even without Lorenzo Brown earlier this season.

In the other semifinal could be a third installment of the Duke-Carolina rivalry.

If those two matchupsmaterialize, it should be the most memorable day of an ACC season filled with twists and turns.

It’s Greensboro’s dream scenario, which could only be topped by the Wolfpackfacing Duke or UNC the next day for the title.